This morning, the nominations for the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards were announced. This is the ceremony where Hollywood’s actors nominate their own, ultimately voting on the winners. This year’s roster features quite the diverse array of performances across film and television…and suggests who may be suiting up for the Oscars in a few months.

In 2015, Richard Matt and David Sweat broke out of Clinton Correctional prison in the town of Dannemora, with the help of Tilly Mitchell. Matt was having an affair with workplace supervisor Mitchell and convinced her to help them escape. They probably never imagined how the breakout would bring them down, let alone become a Showtime miniseries starring Benicio del Toro as Matt, Paul Dano as Sweat and Patricia Arquette as Mitchell.

Ben Stiller directed the eight hour series Escape at Dannemora, written by Michael Tolkin and Brett Johnson (Jerry Stahl is also credited on two episodes). Johnson came from reality TV and worked on Castle, Mad Men and Ray Donovan. Meanwhile, Tolkin was a Hollywood screenwriter in demand in the ‘90s, and penned the definitive Hollywood fiction The Player, which became a landmark Robert Altman movie.

Tolkin spoke with /Film before Showtime’s Television Critics Association panel for Escape at Dannemora. In addition to the Showtime series, we discussed his transition from film to television, and some of his early industry work like the Christian Slater skateboard vehicle Gleaming the Cube and the short-lived Animal House TV series Delta House.

Escape at Dannemora premieres Sunday, November 18 at 10pm on Showtime. Read More »

Ben Stiller is set to direct a new Showtime miniseries, Escape at Dannemora, this fall. The prison escape drama will star Benicio Del Toro (Sicario), Paul Dano (Swiss Army Man), and Academy Award-winner Patricia Arquette (Boyhood). The miniseries is based on a true story involving a 20-day manhunt.